Under the bill, the SEC
couldn’t prohibit shareholder proposals allowed by state
law to remove or replace a director, retain or replace the
company auditor; ensure director independence, and get
public disclosure of the pay package for any director or
officer.

Another provision would
require shareholder approval of any stock option
compensation plan that would not be shown on company
financial statements as an expense.

According to Levin’s
statement, the bill:

bars audit firms from
auditing their own accounting work and from providing
nonaudit services during the length of a contract with
a client and for 24 months after that

directs the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require that the audit
committee of a publicly traded company properly oversee
the firm’s accounting practices to make sure all
financial statements are accurate

reforms the Financial
Accounting Standards Board (FASB) by creating an
independent funding source and requiring the FASB to
promptly deal with matters brought before it with
public input

forces the SEC to put
together regulations about how companies in bankruptcy
handle executive and director compensation and company
loans to officers and directors

directs the SEC to
require a publicly traded company to provide all
material information to its auditor